Italy Re-Bans Polymarket — Putting a $22M Lazio FC Sponsorship Deal Under Italian Criminal Law
Italy's Customs and Monopolies Agency (ADM) added Polymarket to its blacklist of blocked websites for the second time in July 2026, re-classifying it as an unlicensed gambling operator. Polymarket had won a court reversal before the TAR Lazio administrative court in late 2025. The renewed block threatens Polymarket's $22 million sponsorship deal with Lazio FC: Italian law prohibits clubs from advertising unlicensed betting operations, potentially forcing Lazio to drop the partnership.
Italy's Customs and Monopolies Agency (ADM) added Polymarket to its official list of blocked websites for the second time in July 2026, once again classifying the prediction market as an unlicensed gambling operator. The block requires Italian internet service providers to prevent residents from accessing Polymarket.com. Polymarket was first blocked by Italy in late 2025 on the same grounds, but secured a reversal before the TAR Lazio — the Regional Administrative Court of Lazio — in proceedings that allowed the site to resume Italian access in December 2025. The ADM has now re-listed the domain, effectively restarting the blocking dispute despite the earlier court outcome.
The renewed ban has immediate implications beyond platform access. Polymarket holds a $22 million sponsorship deal with S.S. Lazio, the Serie A football club based in Rome. The sponsorship gives Polymarket prominent branding at the Stadio Olimpico and across Lazio's matchday and digital assets. Under Italian law, a club cannot lawfully advertise or endorse an entity that Italian authorities classify as an unlicensed betting operation — the prohibition is enforced under the penal code, not just regulatory guidance. If the ADM's re-listing stands, Lazio faces legal exposure for continuing to display Polymarket branding, and the club may be compelled to either renegotiate the deal or terminate it outright. Polymarket has not publicly commented on the status of the Lazio partnership following the re-blocking.
The episode illustrates how prediction markets sit in a genuinely different legal position across jurisdictions depending entirely on how a regulator classifies them. Polymarket maintains that its products are financial instruments, not gambling — the same argument it uses in its US litigation. In the United States, that argument is heard in federal court with the CFTC as advocate. In Italy, the ADM has no equivalent of the CFTC's preemption doctrine, and the classification decision belongs to the gambling regulator, which has now made it twice. The TAR Lazio ruling from late 2025 did not definitively resolve the classification question; it temporarily suspended the block, and the ADM re-exercised its authority on what appear to be the same underlying grounds.
The Italian ban lands on the same day Gibraltar announced the world's first dedicated prediction markets regulatory framework — a deliberate separate licensing category that explicitly distinguishes prediction markets from gambling. The contrast is sharp: one jurisdiction in Europe is building the legal infrastructure to license and regulate prediction markets as a distinct product, while another is re-blocking the sector's most prominent international platform for the second time in six months. For Polymarket, the more urgent question is whether the Lazio deal survives. For the industry, the Italian episode is a preview of what happens when prediction markets try to operate under a legal theory of 'not gambling' in a jurisdiction whose regulator has already decided they are.
Operators mentioned in this article
Recent updates
Utah Files Felony Charges Against Kalshi and Its Founders — Second State to Criminally Charge a Platform
Utah filed criminal charges against Kalshi and its two co-founders, Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara, on October 28 — 13 felonies and a misdemeanor, including a second-degree 'pattern of unlawful criminal activity' count and 12 counts of online gambling promotion. The charges stem from a September sting in which an undercover agent placed 12 sports wagers verified to be in Utah. The CFTC sued Utah the day before to block state enforcement, its tenth such suit. Utah is the second state after Arizona to criminally charge Kalshi, and the first to charge the founders personally. Kalshi called it a 'crazy overreach.'
NBA Names Kalshi and Polymarket Preferred Exchanges — Leaving the NFL Alone in Opposition
The NBA announced on October 26 that it has named Kalshi and Polymarket its 'preferred prediction market exchanges,' signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with the CFTC on basketball integrity, and expanded its DraftKings deal to include prediction markets — the first league to extend a sportsbook partnership into the category. The exchange deals bar league and team personnel from trading NBA contracts, limit permissible markets, and require sharing of suspicious-trading data, in exchange for NBA intellectual property and official data. The NBA joins MLB, the NHL, and MLS as partnered leagues, leaving the NFL as the lone major holdout — and the only league fighting the platforms in court.
CFTC Chair Says Agency Is Watching Prediction Markets for Manipulation Ahead of Midterms
CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said on October 23 that the agency is closely monitoring prediction markets for manipulation ahead of the November 3 midterms, and that it is separately scrutinizing oil market trading tied to President Trump's announcements about the war in Iran. Combined midterm open interest on Kalshi and Polymarket stood at $250 million as of October 18, with Kalshi holding 84%. Selig acknowledged the agency often catches political figures attempting to trade 'oftentimes after the fact.' The remarks highlight the CFTC's dual and somewhat conflicting role as both the platforms' federal protector and their manipulation watchdog, at a time when the agency has shed enforcement staff.